Mark Twain was the popular American writer and humanist who has been regarded as the “father of American literature”.
Life
Born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30th, 1835, Mark Twain was the sixth child of his parents. His childhood was partly spent in a small town in Florida where he was born and the rest in the port town of Hannibal.
Samuel lost his father when he was twelve and was compelled to work for livelihood from such tender age. At 17 he left for St. Louis where he got the chance to work as river boat pilot’s apprentice. After lot of hard work, Samuel earned the pilot’s license in 1858. It was from his days on the river that he coined his pen name Mark Twain, a term which was used by sailors in riverboats. As the trade in river came to a stand still during the Civil War in 1861, Mark Twain began his life as a newspaper journalist for several newspapers all over the United States.
In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon, and they had four children. But Mark Twain was ill fated that he saw death of most of his children. Their son died in infancy. After that, the couple had three daughter Susy, Clara and Jean. Twain outlived Susy and Jean, both of whom died in their twenties. Death of Twain’s favorite daughter put him into deep depression in 1896 which later deepened after death of his wife in 1904 and daughter Jean in 1909.
His literary career took a head start in 1865 when his first important work The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Mark Twain’s next major publication was the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn made him one of the most noted American writers He wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches. He met financial crisis in keeping his publishing company and used to write articles and commentaries profusely to keep his business afloat. However he had to file for bankruptcy in 1894. In the year 1910, Mark Twain passed away leaving his only daughter Clara.
Alcoholism and its effects
It is known that Mark Twain used to make moderate consumption of alcohol throughout his life and was addicted to smoking. In fact some scholars think that the pen name Mark Twain comes from the running bar tab that he used to incur while drinking at John Piper’s saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. One of leading business men Henry H. Rogers was said to be his drinking and poker buddy in later period of his life. It is not known what prompted him or when he started to drink on a regular basis.
Though Mark Twain consumed alcohol on a moderate basis, alcohol did not consume him as it happened in cases of other writer and artists. However in 1905, Mark Twain, while writing about his addiction to alcohol and smoking, re-iterated the fact that none should follow his way of living.
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